One of the main reasons people invest in products and services is because they know, trust, and love the brands behind those solutions. Research shows that:
- 71% of people are more likely to buy from brands they recognize.
- 77% of consumers want to support businesses with whom they share values (and identify with). And;
- 7 out of 10 buyers will spend more with the brands they trust, 61% will be more likely to recommend them to their peers, 41% will join a loyalty program, and 40% will post positive reviews on social media.
💡 Read Brand Reputation 101: Monitoring, Analysis, and Management Tools
But the thing about successfully nurturing your brand’s reputation is that it’s much more complex than ever, largely thanks to emerging consumer behavior patterns. For example, PWC discovered that 44% of Gen Z and 36% of Millennial consumers use social media to collect pre-purchase information about the items/products they’re considering. Convincing them to convert hugely depends on how well you can perfect the art of social media branding.
Do you want to embrace social networks to position your brand as the go-to in your industry in 2024 and beyond? If that’s the case, here’s everything you need to know about social media branding, the most effective tactics to reach your goals, and a few great examples to draw inspiration from.
Define Your Goals and Develop Strategies Accordingly
The most essential step towards establishing your brand’s reputation is forming a clear idea of how you want your target audience to perceive your business.
Sure, you could rely on your buyers to build your reputation through. If you’re successful at consistently delivering a stellar customer experience, this tactic can help position your brand as a trustworthy provider of products and services.
However, the reality of running a business is that you can’t possibly ensure all your customers are 100% happy with your services. Thus, you will have to do at least some form of reputation management in the future. So, it’s better to start your branding journey early than to unknowingly slip into the tricky waters of trying to reverse a bad online reputation.
To define your social media branding goals (and unlock the insights necessary to develop the right strategies), you must first ask yourself a few questions.
What are your business objectives?
By specifying your key business goals (increasing your market share, boosting sales, entering competitive industries, offering the best solutions in your niche, etc.), you can effectively develop branding strategies for reaching your branding goals.
For instance, if you look at Stanley, you’ll notice that the business set out to dominate the food and beverage gear industry by emphasizing the “built-for-life” quality of its solutions. If you check out the brand on social media, you’ll see that most of its content centers around product quality. And because the brand so clearly aligned itself with high-grade solutions, posts like the one below stand out even more, allowing Stanley to continue cementing its reputation as a brand whose products people can count on no matter what.
Who are the people who will want to buy from your brand?
Your target audience hugely impacts how you will manage your brand’s reputation. You must understand the people you’re trying to reach and convert — particularly their pain points and values — so that you can pinpoint the approaches that will work best for your needs.
For a great example of a brand that does this, check out Million Labs. This no-code software development company successfully defined its target audience as idea-stage non-tech founders who want to launch their startup. It recognized that these customers wanted support and easy solutions. Most importantly, it dedicated its LinkedIn profile to supporting these entrepreneurs, knowing that it’s the ideal place to reach and engage them and nudge them toward a conversion.
What are your brand’s personality and values?
How your business appears to your target audience will hugely impact their willingness to invest in your products and services.
For instance, some buyers want to support approachable and relatable brands. Others prioritize credibility and trustworthiness. And some want to invest in solutions made by a fun company that provides entertainment.
Of course, these desired perceptions will vary based on your industry and target audience. Nonetheless, establishing your personality and values early on will make the branding journey much easier, as it will act as a blueprint for determining the type of content you’ll have to produce and how you will communicate with your audience.
Check out how marvelously the Wendy’s social media marketing team is at creating entertaining, lighthearted posts that align with the company’s customers’ view of the brand.
Publish Relevant Content at the Right Time and Place
According to the 2022 Trust Report by Adobe, 72% of consumers say that brands that publish relevant content at the right time and place earn their trust more effectively. Knowing how important trust is for convincing your audience to do business with your brand, embracing this tactic should be a no-brainer when trying to establish a positive reputation for your organization.
The great thing about this social media branding tactic is that it’s highly effective yet relatively easy to accomplish. Especially when it comes to being consistent with your posting schedule and the social networks you employ.
Ultimately, if you understand your audience’s online behavior, you already have everything you need to develop the perfect posting schedule.
However, where this particular tactic gets tricky is in determining the relevant aspect of your content strategy. To ensure your target audience perceives your business as trustworthy, customer-centric, and competent, you need to present followers with content to prove you are all these things.
For example, if you check out Ultimate Meal Plans, you’ll notice that the brand bases much of its online content around helping customers prepare healthy and nutritious meal plans. On its Instagram page, Ultimate Meal Plans interchangeably posts sales and customer-oriented content, with the posts that really cement its reputation as a dependable solution being the easy-to-follow recipes teaching people how to make high-quality meals with just a few pantry staples.
Read 7 Essential Brand Principles For Standout Success in 2024
Practice Consistency Across All Channels
No matter how hard you try to establish your brand’s reputation, it won’t work unless you practice consistency throughout all the channels you use to interact with your audience.
On the one hand, this means keeping true to your brand’s visual identity both on your website and the social networks you use.
One of the best examples of a brand doing this comes from Thesaurus, whose every Instagram post features an image that’s an almost 1:1 representation of what followers would find on the brand’s site. The result is a recognizable brand visual identity. More importantly, by employing this branding tactic, Thesaurus gets a head start on managing its users’ expectations, ensuring they know what to expect when they land on the brand’s site.
Read Social Media ROI: How to Improve Your Outcomes
On the other hand, establishing your brand’s online reputation via consistency isn’t just about how your posts look but also about what they say about your business.
For example, if you check out Bay Alarm Medical, you’ll see that it’s a business that centers around providing elderly people with tools to keep them safe. However, instead of simply basing its social media presence on conversion-oriented content, Bay Alarm makes a point to populate its feed with heartwarming, personal stories that speak about the wisdom young generations can receive from their elders and the importance of all generations coming together to support each other.
Align Your Brand with the Right Voices
Establishing and managing your brand’s reputation hugely depends on who you employ to speak for your business.
For instance, research shows that aligning your organization with credible industry voices — like scientists and experts — works wonderfully for establishing trust. Particularly if you’re trying to engage a younger demographic.
If you look at brands such as Augustinus Bader, you’ll notice they regularly collaborate with expert industry voices to emphasize the scientific proof at the core of their products. This doesn’t just establish the business as trustworthy. It also encourages consumers to perceive the products as highly effective, significantly increasing their chances of purchasing.
Or, if you check out Mannequin Mall, you’ll see that this brand uses social media to back up its reputation as the #1 mannequin and dress form retailer in the fashion industry. It does so by regularly posting photos of famous fashion house window displays, with all brands having one thing in common — they source their mannequins from Mannequin Mall.
As you employ social media for branding purposes, don’t forget to make room for more down-to-earth voices.
For instance, by doing something similar to Sokisahtel and employing your team in the content creation process, you can give your followers a much-needed authentic sneak peek into the behind-the-scenes workings of your company.
Or, even better, you could amplify your customers’ voices and rely on positive social proof to lead your social media branding efforts. This is what FOCL does. The brand continually alternates between:
- conversion-oriented posts
- educational content that helps its audience solve a pain point
- positive customer feedback that supports FOCL’s claims
Monitor and Manage Brand Reputation
Finally, as you try to master the art of social media branding, don’t forget that continually monitoring the conversations around your brand, competitors, or industry could be the key to effectively establishing your brand’s reputation as the provider of the best solutions in your niche.
After all, even a simple social listening tool can allow you to:
- see what your audience is talking about concerning your brand and products
- chime in on the right conversations
- address and resolve potential customer experience issues without waiting for the consumer to ask for help
- uncover new product development/improvement opportunities, giving you the chance to transform your solution into exactly what your industry lacks
Final Thoughts
Despite being a never-ending job, social media branding is and will remain one of the most effective methods for you to control the narrative around your brand and solutions. And seeing how important it is for your target audience to perceive you in a positive light — at least if you want to attract and convert customers — it’s easy to see that investing resources into managing your brand’s reputation on social media pays off.
The tactics discussed in this article are all excellent ways to get started with the art of social media branding. For them to be effective, you need to base your online activity on customer research. That way, you will demonstrate that you understand your potential customers’ needs. And you’ll have an easier time proving that your business offers the best solution they could ever find.
